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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517361">A Question of Glamoury, Secrets, and Dragons</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisTheHuntress/pseuds/ArtemisTheHuntress'>ArtemisTheHuntress</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Unseen (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Hephaestus crew reunion in another universe, Intrigue, Magic Cops Behaving Badly, Post-Episode: Saved, Secrets, post-Season 1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:00:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,966</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517361</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisTheHuntress/pseuds/ArtemisTheHuntress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jennifer Morgan gets a phone call from an old college friend.  Things in the Unseen World are changing.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jennifer Morgan &amp; Larry Holt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Question of Glamoury, Secrets, and Dragons</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>After listening to the New Year's Special - which I loved, it was so good and I love the LaValle siblings so much - my group chat and I ended up discussing what it would mean for the Unseen World that Blackstar want to just be Magic Cops now.</p>
<p>This led to an excellent conversation about Addison and Eddie springing Robin Fend from magic jail and starting Magic Antifa, headquartered, of course, in Piffling Vale.</p>
<p>This is not that story.</p>
<p>But this <i>is</i> an idea that spun off that idea and takes place in that hypothetical direction for this universe, starring a <i>different</i> set of podcast voice actors.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jennifer Morgan’s phone buzzes.  She doesn’t recognize the number on the screen, and doesn’t answer it.  After a few seconds, it fades to silence.  She continues sketching design ideas for the gala reception hall.  Fountains that dance seem appropriate, and a better job for glamoury than wonder-working—don’t want to actually get water everywhere, learned the hard way last time—but the choreography videos she’s been watching on youtube are hard to translate to something contained enough to—</p>
<p>Her phone buzzes again.  Same number.  Someone wants to reach her.</p>
<p>She answers it, this time, with a sigh.  “Hello?  Who is this?”</p>
<p>“Jennifer!”  A man’s voice, chipper, slightly desperate.  “Jen?  Jennifer.  Hey.”</p>
<p>“Sorry, again, who is this?”</p>
<p>“Larry Holt!  From college?  C’mon, Jen.  Okay, it’s been a while, but.  Larry Holt!  Also, wow, it feels so good to just be able to <em>say</em> that again.  I’m Larry.  Fuck you.”</p>
<p>“Oooookay.  Right, yes, you’re Larry.  Did you call me just to tell me that?”</p>
<p>“Oh!  Not you!  Sorry, that was not at you!  That was—long story, it’s stupid, never mind.  I <em>did</em> call to tell you something else besides that, I swear.  And it was, you will never guess who showed up at my door today.”</p>
<p>Larry Holt.  There <em>was </em>something about him recently, wasn’t there.  “Was it the Lady Sarkana?”</p>
<p>“Was it—what?  No!  Oh my God, that was <em>one time!</em>  How do you even know about that?”</p>
<p>“Everybody knows about that.  Dragons don’t deign to come into cities very often, and they’re not known for letting the too-cool-for-school children of famous artists slam the door in their face and live to tell about it.”</p>
<p>“In my defense, she looked like a normal person.  When dragons are in normal-person disguise, they understandably look like normal people!”</p>
<p>“So you would slam the door in the face of a random woman who came to your door?  Yeah, still classy.”</p>
<p>“She came to the door asking about my dad, and I like to think I’d made it very clear that I was <em>not</em> interested in talking about my dad or giving out mementos to his adoring, sobbing fans.  She said something about how he made a painting for her once and she thought it was amusing and flattering enough that she let him borrow something, but now that he’d gotten himself eaten by his own canvas she wanted it back, and I thought she was some admirer and I had <em>no</em> patience for that.  How was I supposed to know she was connected to that dragon painting he made once?”</p>
<p>“I’m shocked she didn’t burn the house down.”</p>
<p>“Oh, she burned the door off its hinges and walked in and took whatever it was she was after, she <em>did </em>do that.  I guess she was in a good mood.”</p>
<p>“Or maybe thought you were just a petulant baby who was too young and stupid to deserve her full wrath?”</p>
<p>“Rude, but I cannot actually deny any of those things.”</p>
<p>“I’m glad you’re catching on.”</p>
<p>“I.  Uh.  Listen, Jen, I know I haven’t talked to you since the funeral.  And.  I know you were just being nice offering your condolences and I <em>probably</em> shouldn’t have made such a big deal about how much I would not miss my dad, even though it’s true, but I admit I should have stopped before I made you cry, which was awkward.  So.  Here’s an apology?  I have something I was actually calling to tell you about.  The guy who showed up at my door today?  He was a Blackstar agent.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”  Jennifer blinks, processing that.  Wait.  He can’t be— “Larry, tell me you’re not calling me from prison.”</p>
<p>“What?  No, if I was calling you from prison, trust me, I would <em>absolutely</em> have led with that.  Also I wouldn’t be calling you.  <em>No,</em> I’m not calling from prison.  He did not arrest me.  He probably <em>wanted</em> to, but making fun of a Blackstar’s accent is not illegal even if they don’t like it.”</p>
<p>This does make her groan.  “Why did you think that was a good idea?”</p>
<p>“You’d be surprised how many things sound like good ideas when they arise out of spite.”</p>
<p>“Why was he at your house, then?”  This has nothing to do with her.  Larry Holt is not her problem.  She can’t not ask, anyway.  “Are you in trouble?”</p>
<p>“A little bit.  Little tiny bit.  So it turns out that selling a human soul ensconced within <em>anything</em> is super <em>duper</em> illegal.  Ownership of an inanimate object containing a human soul is a dubious gray area that they can’t really do anything about, but apparently <em>selling</em> it is quite the big no-no that Blackstar takes it upon themselves to follow up on.”</p>
<p>“Jesus, Larry!”</p>
<p>“It was my dad’s carnivorous soul painting!  It was fine!   I got it organically!  I don’t exactly make a <em>habit</em> of selling illegal ensouled objects!”</p>
<p>“And tell me, again, how you’re not calling from prison?”</p>
<p>“Well, the ensouled canvas doesn’t <em>per se</em> exist anymore, so there’s not really anything they can <em>prove.</em>  It’s a very boring still life of some fruit now, which is admittedly uninspired but kind of perfect, if you ask me.  My dad would’ve hated it.  But I was also walking around after this guy arguing, it wasn’t <em>really</em> ensouled, my dad got <em>vivisected,</em> he was just dead the normal way, and the painting was cursed or something, do I <em>look</em> like I know how curses work?  And besides when you get down to it what <em>is</em> a soul anyway.  If he infused some of his magic into every painting, it was his <em>art,</em> his <em>vision,</em> was that part of his soul?  Metaphorically?  Was <em>he</em> a big spooky soul-criminal for being an <em>artist</em>?  I got a kick out of that argument.  The Blackstar guy didn’t.  No sense of humor.  He asked me some questions and I asked him if, then, something like oubliation was illegal, because that’s selling <em>memories</em>, and <em>that’s</em> basically part of your soul.  Your <em>self</em>, anyway.  The guys who make memories just to sell them, are <em>they</em> soul-criminals?  Never liked that.  Creepy.  The whole memory business.  <em>That</em> should be illegal.  Don’t get why ensouled objects are illegal but memories aren’t.  Like I <em>get</em> why selling ensouled objects is illegal, trust me I do in fact get it, but it seems like a double standard there.”</p>
<p>“Didn’t you sell some of your memories once?  I swear I remember you bragging about that back in school.”</p>
<p>“Oh, sure, years ago some big fan of my dad’s was falling over himself about how <em>lucky</em> I was that I got to be there while he was painting his masterpieces, and I offered to sell him my memories of that because <em>I</em> sure as hell didn’t want ‘em.  It was a <em>joke</em>.  I was <em>joking.</em>  But the guy totally went for it, and I thought, well, I’m definitely getting written out of the will, and all these memories are good for are going overtime every week with my therapist, so, why not make them work for me for once?  Have fun getting ignored and feeling inadequate and nebulously bad about yourself, sucker, that’s a fundamental part of that memory too.  You see why I don’t like people who show up and appear to be fans asking for mementos.”  He pauses at her silent non-response.  “Oh, uh, I’m not making you cry again, am I?”</p>
<p>“No, it’s—fine.  Larry.  It’s fine.  That sounds like… a weird and stressful day.  And if you need someone to talk to about it with, I understand, but.  Why me?  We haven’t spoken in a long time, and I have a real job, remember, and—I have a kid to take care of now—so if you’re just calling to catch up—”</p>
<p>“You have a <em>what?</em>  Wild.”</p>
<p>“No, it’s—never mind.  Not now.  If you actually want to catch up, talk about how our lives have gone since school, since we didn’t exactly do that very much at your father’s funeral, maybe we—”</p>
<p>“Yeah, sorry about that.”</p>
<p>“You said you had something to tell me?”</p>
<p>“Right!  Right.  So, Blackstar guy, wandering through my house, checking to see if I had any other secretly ensouled ill-gotten goods, I’m annoying him, he’s annoying me, good times, I ask him if he has anything better to do than rifle through my father’s art stuff I’d put in the basement, or if he was just another fan looking for souvenirs.  That finally made him snap at me.  Said that after the vote did I <em>think</em> they’d be wasting time on nonsense like that when there was real work to do.”</p>
<p>“After… the vote?”</p>
<p>“That's the exciting thing I learned from this encounter. Blackstar had a big vote last month!  You know how they’re ostensibly this big research group that studies the Caul, why some people are Veiled and some aren’t, why some children of famous and powerful magicians turn out to be total duds even if we’ve been able to see past the Caul our entire lives—”</p>
<p>Jennifer winces at that.  She’d forgotten.  “Yeah.  Isn’t that what they mostly do?  Coordinate esoteric magic research, and then codify all their secret and esoteric research via official channels to make sure no one’s using that kind of magic to hurt people?”</p>
<p>“Not anymore!  Fun fact, which is not fun at all, as of January they’ve given up the research part.  They just want to do the cop part now.”</p>
<p>Jennifer lets out a long breath.  Larry can definitely hear it.  “That… isn’t great.”</p>
<p>“It’s not!  I only found that out from asking my old boss afterward, though, because the agent at my house wasn’t telling me any of that.  He seemed stressed.  Harried, you know?  And he snapped at me that he didn’t want to be here—the feeling was mutual, by the way—and that he was puttering around with art stuff that all looked on the level and there was no proof of ensouled anything at all, while his colleagues were out doing <em>real</em> work, and as boring as tracking down all the glamourists in the city was it still beat this.”</p>
<p>Oh.  “Oh,” Jennifer says.</p>
<p>“Yeah.  So, <em>that</em> sounds weird, and I say to him, ‘What’s that about?’ and he says ‘Piss off’ and I say ‘Nah, glamoury is the only magical art I was ever any good at, are you hiring glamourists?’  And he looks at me like he suspects I’m lying—”</p>
<p>“Were you?”</p>
<p>“Of course I was.  I was never any good at glamoury.  But he says that they’ve been having some <em>trouble</em> with an escaped criminal glamourist they had in custody, they want to find out what he’s up to, and if he’s contacted anyone, and they need vetted glamourists on staff now to ‘mitigate the situation’ and figure out what he’s doing, which turned into a digression of what was that annoying prat thinking and if his sister knew anything about it.  The vote was apparently a really big deal.  They had agents resign in protest and everything.  So, there’s something up.  They’re interrogating glamourists and maybe hiring them.  What I’m getting is that some agent must’ve sprung a criminal, maybe also in protest, but they’ve been chomping at the bit to be <em>real</em> cops and this is a really embarrassing way to start that, and they're not taking it well.  So.  I know you’re a glamourist.  And you’re a good one, and people like you, and you do good work.  Big work.  You’re the kind of name that would pop up on their radar.  So… I wanted to give you a heads up, you know?  Maybe an apology for being an ass at my dad’s funeral.  If Blackstar comes knocking at your door, that’s what’s up.  Stay safe out there.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Special thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_J_Smith/pseuds/G_J_Smith">G_J_Smith</a> and <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliverusfromsburb/pseuds/deliverusfromsburb">deliverusfromsburb</a> for their commentary making fun of Zach Valenti's character, the true podcast bonding experience.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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